Primaries, polls show tea party's struggles

Video: Decoding Tuesday’s victories

Open in new window

2. Closed captioning of: Decoding Tuesday’s victories

   Advertise | AdChoices

   >> tuesday's praerls where some of the juicest story lines played out on the state level.

   >> nathan daschle from the democratic governors association , nick airs from the republican governors association both join us. both a chance to respond to each other's spin from the night. nick, you put out a moorm talking about bragging about all your woman nominees from meg whitman , nikki haley in south carolina , suzanne martinez on why is it that you believe this is going to be the key to sort of making the republican party no longer a white male party.

   >> it's a big deal when you look at what happened over the last eight days. we have three likely women what we've done with broadening our base with minorities, chuck, more importantly, these are candidates well positioned to win. these are game changing candidates who are either within the margin of error of the democrat or way ahead. so it's a great opportunity for us to expand our base in the party.

   >> nathan, i presume you take a different view. you feel what from last night's election, this shows a party that's moved to the right?

   >> i think that's exactly right. i think the main story line from last night, the ongoing battle from the right to the far right, gop civil war . i don't see how you look at last night's results and see anyone but the tea party as victories. in two candidates were nominated. four of the six, although the winners may not have been endorsed by the tea party candidate they moved so far right they are indistinguishable.

   >> are you underestimating the tea party . great if we have tea party candidates because the democrats are going to wipe the floor with them come november.

   >> that might be a little strong. i think it is good. i think the tea party candidates -- we just saw "the washington post ," favoritability is at an all-time low, twice as unfavorable as favorable. republicans who made the decision to go right, i think they made a bad decision. i think it was a decision that was convenient at the time but will hurt them this fall.

   >> south carolina , you clearly are trying to convince gresham barrett he can't wind. why should he got out? considering the craziness that happened. shouldn't he stay in.

   >> i think anyone would understand why we're proud of what nikki haley has overcome, the lies and slurs about her.

   >> from fellow republican.

   >> keep in mind, when she started, she was at 24%, last night she got basically 50% of the vote, 49% of the vote. congressman barrett had a distinguished record. he's a solid guy. very well respected in washington, d.c. and his home state. what he does is up to him. we're proud of what nikki haley has been able to do. we think the results are all but certain.

   >> quickly, how do you prevent california from becoming a waterloo financially?

   >> if i had a nickel for every billionaire who ran and lost in california, i would be meg whitman . money can't buy elections. she spent 200 to 1, her spending versus brown. 200 to one and he's beating in the polls.

   >> all right. thank you so much. appreciate it.

   >> coming up, the place nick chose to be, at national park to watch stephen strasburg's much anticipated debut.

   >> goal us on twitter @chucktodd,

   Show transcript